To make the published results of research easily available to the public, the University of Oklahoma Libraries and Oklahoma State University Libraries have established SHAREOK, an openly available website that will house the intellectual output of both universities. Content will ultimately include digital dissertations, faculty publications and research, digital special collections, open access publications,open educational resources and much more.

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SHAREOK is an example of meeting the goals set by Oklahoma Governor Fallin in the “OneOklahoma: A Strategic Plan for Science and Technology in Oklahoma, 2012,” but it will not stop with just OU and OSU. [Our emphasis] SHAREOK is looking to potentially expand to other Oklahoma higher education institutions.

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OU Dean of Libraries Rick Luce and OSU Dean of Libraries Sheila Johnson are championing the project on their respective campuses.

“The University of Oklahoma is aggressively moving forward in addressing both existing and planned government requirements concerning research and associated data,” Luce said. “We’re making available to people on a global basis, the academic and scholarly research of this university as well as the vast and rich special collections of the Libraries. Combining resources to enhance the repository was mutually beneficial. SHAREOK directly supports the mission of each institution.”

As research libraries, it is our mission to preserve knowledge and make it available,” Johnson said. “Providing SHAREOK is a natural progression of the service we already provide.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.